1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronic toy that signals an alarm when the toy has not been held for a period of time. More particularly, the invention relates to a heart-shaped toy that emits a sound, light and a beating sensation.
2. The Prior Art
Heart shaped novelty toys are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,022 to Gross discloses a heart novelty and relaxation device. There is a heart-shaped housing that contains a speaker and circuitry for producing a slow heart beat sound which has a relaxing effect on a listener. In this case, the housing is assembled from two molded plastic conformal sides having integral complementary brackets that mate to hold the sides together along a median plane. There is a circuitry mounted on a board which also supports an on/off switch having a flat arm that pivots in the median plane. This flat arm projects unobtrusively from the housing through the slide of the interface between the sides to facilitate extra control of the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,131 to Sirota discloses a toy heart that is an expanding and contracting heart produced by a separate generator or in response to sensing a pulse beat of a child by a sensor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,823 to Laven discloses a heart-shaped novelty item. In this case, there is a novelty item having a heart-shaped housing with a translucent window formed therein. The housing has two conductors formed on the exterior thereof. When the housing is held in a person""s hand, there is a conductive path formed between the two conductors and one or more LED""s in the interior of the housing begins to flash on and off to show the beating heart. In this case, there are shown side sensors or a back sensor wherein when the heart is held in the person""s hand, it shows that the heart starts beating again.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,885 to Goldman et al discloses a deformable sound-generating electronic toy. In this case, the deformable toy can play back prerecorded or newly recorded sounds, music, messages which have predetermined playback rate as recorded to the device. There is disposed within the toy a piezoelectric transducer and a plunger engaging the body and the transducer responds to pressure transmitted through the medium by deforming of the body to shift the plunger.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,876 to Lee discloses a child calming toy with rhythmic stimulation. In this case, there is disclosed a stuffed animal having a pocket which contains a heart beat stimulating transducer. The power of the simulator heart beats may be regulated by an adjustment of a potentiometer via a knob. As shown there is a support pin which overlies a switch which is wired to actuate an electronic pulsing circuit powered by a battery.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,520 to Sellers et al discloses a light-emitting novelty device having a heart-shaped convex-concave, light-transmitting cover. Disposed within the heart is a miniature light bulb which is screwed into a socket of a light holder. There is also a switch which is connected to the circuit board to turn on the light.
The present invention differs from the prior art because the present invention contains a display showing an oscillating heart beat, a series of levers that can be used as sensors to revive a heart, and a timer to cause the heart to stop beating.
One object of the invention is to provide a simplfied novelty device that is easy to manufacture, and simple in design.
Another object of the invention is to provide a heart shaped novelty device that contains a display to imitate an oscillating heart beat.
Another object of the invention is to provide a heart shaped novelty device that contains a timer designed to randomly make the heart stop beating after a period of time.
Another object of the invention is to provide a heart shaped novelty device that contains a series of side levers designed to revive the heart beat after the heart has stopped beating.
These and other objects are achieved by providing an electronic toy that is designed to sound an alarm when that toy has not been held for a period of time. This toy is essentially designed as a heart-shaped toy having eyes, a nose and a mouth. In addition, attached to this toy is a chain for carrying this toy around.
This toy is of suitable size so that it can contain a series of electronic components. These electronic components include a battery such as a watch battery that powers a series of electronic components such as a timer, a memory/processor unit, a speaker and a visible oscilloscope display. In addition, connected with these electronic components is a series of switches that when closed, resets the timer within the electric circuit.
In addition, there is also an optional electromechanical drum that beats creating a beating sensation when a person holds onto the pet heart.